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Listen Up Philip, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Jason Schwartzman, Jonathan Pryce, Elisabeth Moss, Krysten Ritter, Joséphine de La Baume, Jess Weixler, Dree Hemingway, Keith Poulson, Kate Lyn Sheil, Yusef Bulos, Maïté Alina, Lee Wilkof, Eric Bogosian.

It is said that writing is the closest occupation to resemble death that is possible. The ability to sit at a type writer and keep perfectly still as the brain searches for the tired muse for hours is enough to drive the sane to such introspection that their world becomes one that could be seen out of step with the rest of humanity.

Listen Up Philip, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(579 words, estimated 2:19 mins reading time)

West, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10

Cast: Jördis Triebel, Tristan Göbel, Alexander Scheer, Jacky Ido, Anja Antonowicz, Ryszard Ronczewski, Andreas Nickl, Polina Voskresenskaya, Hendrik Arnst, Tony Dunham.

The battles in Europe may have been won but the war for hearts and minds in the ideological minefield was gathering pace and with Berlin divided in a more brutal fashion than even Germany as a whole suffered, so the divisions between East and West grew, hatred was stoked up and paranoia was increased.

West, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(432 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

The Old Witch Of Searesbyrig.

The thunder growls with the offer of temptation to

the old enchanteress Witch of Searesbyrig and the flash of

lightning seals the loaded deal as yet another limp weary

traveller, half drowned by the talasmatic Nadder, dogged by Time,

fully disciplined and near dead from his direct action and exhaustive days

flight and fight against a foe of fury unseen,

seeks his way, seeking shelter from the strange energies

that such a storm springs up from Satan’s well.

Such words of welcome to the weary and wilting man

The Old Witch Of Searesbyrig. full post

(417 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

The Illegal Eagles, Gig Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool. (2015).

Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

For Liverpool fans of the Eagles, 2014 was a momentous year, a moment in which the band came back to the U.K. and gave arguably one of the greatest performances by the band in perhaps the whole of the career. It was possibly made all the more special for the fact that they had not played as a cohesive unit, least not on the rain battered shores that the River Mersey takes solace in, for some time and yet the music was as beautiful and hard hitting as it ever had been. The only disappointment that would have been felt was the feeling of numbness as the dying embers of the classic songs slowly drifted off into the ether and the realisation that these songs of nights out in the desert and where the symbol of American freedom might never be heard live again.

The Illegal Eagles, Gig Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool. (2015). full post

(530 words, 1 image, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

Queen And Country. Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Callum Turner, Caleb Landry Jones, Pat Shortt, David Thewlis, Richard E. Grant, Vanessa Kirby, Tasmin Egerton, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Sinéad Cusack, David Hayman, John Standing, Brian F.O’ Byrne, David Michael Claydon, Julian Wadham, Tom Stuart, Alfie Stuart, Gerran Howell, Simon Paisley Day, Maria Flacau, Constantin Florescu.

The life of Bill Rohan was always going to be exceptional, especially when he is the alter ego of British film maker John Boorman, it just always seemed a shame that the account of his life seemed to stop in mid flight in the superb 1987 British film Hope and Glory.

Queen And Country. Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(495 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

Second Coming, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Nadine Marshall, Idris Elba, Kai Francis Lewis, Sharlene Whyte, Seroca Gideon, Llewella Gideon, Larrington Walker, Nicola Walker, Janelle Frimpong, Gershwyn Eustache Jnr, Carol Been, Nick Figgis, David Fernandez, Tosin Cole, Arinder Sadhra, Yemi Adenle, Anna Brooks Beckman.

Being allowed into the mind of someone is both a privilege and a curse and this is perhaps encapsulated to its fullest potential in Debbie Tucker Green’s film Second Coming.

The life of Jax is in turmoil, she is harbouring a secret so intense that it is bleeding through into her sleepless nights and in the end could just threaten the safety and sanity of her well being and that of her family.

Second Coming, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(448 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

There’s More At Stake Now That Sir Christopher Has Died.

On the day that Christopher Lee died,

the world of Nightmares seemed less important

and as I struggled in my usual, haphazard way to fall asleep

I started counting teeth, the times I had seen

The Hammer House of Horror films helping

in this regard.

My father, upright, upstanding, noble of heart,

hated me watching Grange Hill, the non realism, or perhaps

the frightening truth of 1970s education in the heart

of the country at stake, enough to know

that it was a not a television programme for a boy

There’s More At Stake Now That Sir Christopher Has Died. full post

(311 words, estimated 1:15 mins reading time)

Red Skies, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Saul Murphy, Maggie Lynch, Charlie Griffiths, Sara Woodley, Eleanor Nelly, Jay Podmore, Jonathan McIntyre, Lynne Fitzgerald, Lesley Butler, Alan Walsh, Berbie Foley, Michael Swift, Marc J Morison, Rebecca Ray Johnson, Danny Marray, Holly Clarke, Rachel Waldock, Libby Drinkwater-Burke, Logan Drinkwater-Burke.

The scars of war never truly fade and that is arguably the truest sentiment when it comes to the devastation visited upon Liverpool and Bootle during the dark days of The Blitz. Any visitor to the city, any person who has lived in the two neighbouring towns, will still be overawed by the monuments to the dead and the long nights endured by the people during the campaign to bring the people to their knees.

Red Skies, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(528 words, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

Jurassic World, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Vincent D’Onofrio, Ty Simpkins, Nick Robinson, Irrfan Khan, Omar Sy, B.D. Wong, Jake Johnson, Judy Greer, Andy Buckley, Jimmy Fallon.

Humanity never learns, it assumes control and mastery over all and in the end it seems both nature and the beast will always win through. It’s a good job really, for if humanity ever truly learned from its mistakes, films like Jurassic World would never get made and cinema would be poorer for it.

Jurassic World, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(565 words, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Dark Eyes 4. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Paul McGann, Nicola Walker, Barnaby Kay, Beth Chalmers, Charlie Norfolk, Derek Hutchinson, Dan Starkey, Camilla Power, John Dorney, Rachael Stirling, Alex Wyndham, Blake Ritson, Nicholas Briggs, Alex MacQueen, Sorcha Cusack, Susannah Harker, David Sibley.

Arguably one of the most involved, most deliberately, and it has to be said wonderfully elaborately written endeavours undertaken by Big Finish finally comes to an end as the saga of Dark Eyes sees the Eighth incarnation battle not only the Eminence, The Master and the Daleks but also Time itself. It is a battle that sees the foreshadowing of what is to come, of the ache that will grip the Doctor as the Time War sets out to destroy all and in which the very soul of the Time Lord is challenged.

Doctor Who: Dark Eyes 4. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish. full post

(464 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)